By Bruno Waterfield - 5th September 2004
The European Commission has defended an “odious” Dutch EU presidency statement from Netherlands foreign minister Bernard Bot in the aftermath of Ossetia’s Beslan school massacre.
Bot has angered Moscow with a request to Russia for an explanation of events leading up the deaths of 335 people, mainly children, at the hands of Chetchen terrorists.
“[We] would like to know from the Russian authorities how this tragedy could have happened,” he said.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has described the remark as “insolent”.
“The inappropriate comments of the Dutch minister are, to say the least, odious, and for the large part deeply offensive,” said a statement.
But Brussels chief Romano Prodi has backed Bot’s “normal and friendly” statement.
“It is not possible to react straight away, you have to look carefully at exactly what happened, and there are still many grey areas,” he said on Sunday.
“Following that process a request for an explanation is legitimate, as is normal between friendly countries.”
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